1911 — Among the Hills: A Book of Joy in the High Places. - First Edition. Dedication Copy With Beautiful Original Ink Drawing. Headley Brothers, London, [nd] 1911. 8vo., [vi], 326 pages, and 1 page of publisher's ads. Illustrated with photographic plates as well as 14 colour plates of paintings by two artists, the latter mounted to teal-grey linen leafs with tissue guard. Publisher's original teal cloth, gilt title to front and spine. [Later editions were printed on ordinary paper rather than the finer production mounted in this first edition; tissue guards were also omitted.] Slight shelf wear to spine, otherwise in very good and original condition, a pleasing volume with a splendid drawing. The front end paper features a charming ink drawing of two birds fluttering over a river, by a skilled artist. The artist is identified only as A.J., who dedicates the volume to E. Horace Walpole, 1-10-1912. The recipient is perhaps the illegitimate son of Horatio Walpole (1813-1894) 4th Earl of Oxford (second creation) and Lady Susan Hamilton Douglas (1814-1889) wife of the 5th Duke of Newcastle. Research to this effect is warranted to substantiate. Farrer's narrative recounts a six week exploration in the Gratian, Cottian and Maritime Alps looking for particularly rare and precious plants, so stated in his first chapter. Written for the cultivator and lover of plants who share his passion, as opposed to the collector of samples, his work is a beautifully written and highly detailed account of the plants' features, habitat, preferred conditions for growth, and so forth. At the end of the work he evidently felt it necessary to dispel an accusation of having devastated regions in the valleys of the Alps, a charge which contradicted the very essence of his work.
